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Ulf von Euler - Biographical

Ulf S. von Euler was born in
Stockholm on February 7th, 1905, as the second son of Hans von Euler-Chelpin
and Astrid Cleve. His father was born in Augsburg, Germany, as
the only son of general Rigas von Euler-Chelpin. Hans von
Euler-Chelpin received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1929.
Ulf's mother was the daughter of Per Teodor Cleve, who was
Professor of Chemistry in Uppsala, and the discoverer of the
elements thulium and holmium. Astrid Cleve received her Ph. D. in
botany and later devoted most of her scientific activities to
diatomes and to geology and obtained the title of professor in
1955.

After school years in Stockholm and in Karlstad, Ulf von Euler
entered the Karolinska Institute as a medical student in 1922.
The scientific atmosphere at home and the regular opportunities
to meet scientists - Svante Arrhenius
(Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1903) was his godfather - had, no
doubt, a great part in his growing interest in research. This was
facilitated but never enforced upon him by his parents. After a
period of study with Robin Fåhraeus (a pioneer in blood
sedimentation and rheology) von Euler began some research work on
his own and he was much encouraged by a prize given for a study
on vasoconstrictor properties of fever blood.

From 1926 he worked as assistant in G. Liljestrand's Department
of Pharmacology, where he produced his thesis in 1930, followed
by an appointment as Assistant Professor in Pharmacology in the
same year.

Aided by the continuous support of Liljestrand, von Euler had the
good fortune of obtaining a Rockefeller Fellowship for studies
abroad (1930-1931) with H. H.
Dale in London, I. de Burgh Daly in Birmingham, C. Heymans in Ghent and
G. Embden in Frankfurt. This period of diversified studies in
Physiology and Pharmacology provided an invaluable basis for
further research. Having had the good luck of discovering an
active biological factor in intestinal extracts («Substance
P»), further developed with J. H. Gaddum in Dale's
laboratory, von Euler's interest, soon after his return home,
turned in that direction and led subsequently to the findings of
prostaglandin and vesiglandin (1935), piperidine (1942) and
noradrenaline (1946).

In A. V. Hill's laboratory in
London, von Euler obtained some insight into problems and
methodology of biophysics (1934). Expert teaching in the subjects
of neuromuscular transmission was given by G. L. Brown in London
(1938). Various aspects of endocrinology and experimental renal
hypertension were later studied with E. Braun-Menéndez in
B. A. Houssay's laboratory in
Buenos Aires in 1946-1947.

After a period from 1930 to 1939 as Assistant Professor, von
Euler was appointed Professor of Physiology at the Karolinska
Institute, a post which he has held until 1971. Conditions for
work were improved by the transfer from the old site of the
Karolinska Institute to modern laboratories in the new premises
just outside Stockholm. Experimental work was greatly facilitated
by generous support from the Medical Research Council (after 1950) but also from
private funds and the pharmaceutical industry, as well as from
research funds in the United States of America.

After the identification of noradrenaline as the adrenergic
neurotransmitter in 1946, most of von Euler's research work has
been devoted to this subject. Its distribution in nerves and
organs, its excretion during various physiological and
pathological conditions and its quantitation have been studied in
his laboratory. The finding that the transmitter was stored in
subcellular particles (with his late colleague N-Å. Hillarp)
gave a new direction to the research, and problems concerning
uptake, storage and release from nerve granules as well as the
neurotransmission process have been the main research subject
since 1958. A large number of students, research assistants and
research associates have taken part in these studies.

During the years 1953 to 1960 Ulf von Euler was a Member of the
Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine
and from 1961 to 1965 he served as Secretary of the Committee. In
1965 Professor von Euler was appointed Chairman of the Board of
the Nobel Foundation.

From 1965 to 1971 he served as Vice-President of the
International Union of Physiological Sciences.

Professor von Euler is a Member of the Royal Academies of Sciences
in Stockholm and in Copenhagen, the Leopoldina Academy
(Halle), Real Academia de Medicina in Barcelona and The American
Philosophical Society. Honorary Member of The American College
of Physicians, Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American
Heart Association, Swedish College of Physicians, Italian
Pharmacological Society, Swedish Endocrinological Society, and
the Aeromedical Society.

From 1930 to 1957, Ulf von Euler was married to Jane
Sodenstierna, they had four children: Hans Leo, scientist
administrator at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, U.S.A.;
Johan Christopher, anesthesiologist, Serafimer Hospital,
Stockholm; Ursula Katarina, B. A. Assistant in the Department of
History of Arts, University of Stockholm; and Marie Jane, Chemical
Engineer, Melbourne, Australia.

This autobiography/biography was written
at the time of the award and first
published in the book series Les Prix Nobel.
It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.